Hello,
I plan to travel to Paris this July with my 3 sons, ages 23, 15, %26amp; 8. This will be our first visit. I will have museum passes, metro passes, and a list of cafe%26#39;s to visit.
I%26#39;m hoping someone will look over my tentative itinerary and offer changes/suggestions as needed.
Day 1: Arrive in Paris. Shuttle to city. I thought a general overview of the city via a double-decker bus would be perfect on our first day. Hot Chocalate at Angelinas and perhaps a walk in Marais. (Hope to have hotel in Marais) An easy first day considering we will have been on a plane from Boston.
Day 2: Louvre (Will have mapped out specific sites to view and spend 1/2 day there) Sacre Couer in the afternoon. Eiffel tower at dusk with dinner in the restaurant.
Day 3: Arc d/Triumph, Catacombs for the 2 older boys, Pere Lachaise Cemetary, Hotel des Invalides, and a night cruise along the Seine.
Day 4: Notre Dame Cathedral, Cite de-Sciences museum, walk (perhaps the Latin Quater), garden/park for kids to bike, basketball, etc. Another hot chocalate at Angelinas!!
Day 5: Train to Caen. Rent car. Memorial museum in Caen. Bayeaux for hotel.
Day 6: Beaches/Cemetary/Arromanches Touring on our own with rental car. Will have definite itinerary for this before we travel.
Day 7: Beaches/Cemetary etc. Continuation of Day 6.
Day 8: Bayeaux Tapestry, Leisurely drive to Mont St. Michel. Wish to tour Mont St. Michel late afternoon and watch tide come in. Hotel in this area.
Day 9: Drive back to Paris. Will probably drive through Brittany. Not sure of exact route back to Paris. Will spend night near airport and return car there.
I would appreciate any comments/suggestions. I am very flexible and can add days, switch things around, etc.
My main objective is for my boys to experience French life/people, hence the Paris walks, garden/park day, and leisure countryside drives. I would also like for them to see the History/Architecture of this region. My boys are especially interested in the D-Day sites.
A couple of questions, please:
1. Can anyone figure out how I might be able to spend 1/2 day in Rouen?
2. I cannot find a price for the train from Paris to Caen. Does anyone have an idea as to how much this trip might cost?
3. What do I need to book in advance...? Dinner at the Eiffel Tower?
Thank you for your time.
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I just purchased train tickets from paris to Caen. We got the cheap/limited/non-refundable 2nd class tickets %26quot;Prems%26quot; for 15 euro each. I think the full fare for 2nd class is about 26 euro.
if you go to www.sncf.fr there is a British flag in the lower left corner so you can see the site in English. Click on %26quot;information schedule and bookings%26quot; and you can see what the times are and available tickets for Paris to Caen.
Hope that helps.
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Yesterday I tried to book dinner at Le Jules Verne (Eiffel Tower) for April 6 and they informed me I had to do it 4 months in advance.
Rouen is only a little over an hour away from Paris. You can take an early train and be in Rouen a little after 9am. It%26#39;s a great little town.
Bobette
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Having been to Mont St Michel, your day 8
might work better if you get there early
in the morning and do the Bayeux Tapestries
in the afternoon.
I sense watching the tide come in is very
important to you but I bet not dealing
with the hordes of people getting in your
way on the rock might be a little more
important.
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If you really want to see the tide coming in at Mont St Michel you will need to find out exactly when that is going to happen on the day you plan to be there. Have you already checked and is that why you are going in the late afternoon?
When we were there it was low tide and there were a number of disappointed tourists running around asking when the water was going to come back.
Even if the tides don%26#39;t work out for you Mont St Michel is spectacular.
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Here is the tide schedule at Mont St Michel for July 2006. ot-montsaintmichel.com/horaires_juillet06.htm
Here is the link for train travel. You will get available times and prices. http://www.voyages-sncf.com/
There are two restaurants on the ET. The Jules Verne, which is very elegant, pricey and requires reservations months in advance. And Altitude 95 which is simple, touristy and requires reservations days in advance.
I%26#39;d probably only go to Angelina%26#39;s once for the hot chocolate and try somewhere different for the second day. Laduree is famous, historic and gastronomic, L%26#39;Artisan des Saveurs on rue de Cherche Midi is a neighborhood hole with some mind blowingly delicious hot chocolate.
It is not clear that it was part of the plan, but au cas ou, I would not recommend dinner on the Seine.
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Thank you to all who replied to my post. I appreciate the heads up about checking the tidal times for Mont St. Michel. I did not even think of this! Also, thanks for the train fares.
I will ask your opinions in regards to my Normandy itinerary once I make more concrete plans.
One question I have now is, has anyone gone from Paris to Rouen (by train) and rented a car there? I would like to spend 1/2-1 day in this town before moving on towards the D-Day beaches, Bayeaux and Mont St. Michel. I have 4-5 days to spend on this part of our trip.
Thank you again for your time.
Carol
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My family is taking the same basic trip as you have outlined in Aug - any advise you can offer?
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There is another restaurant in the ET that just reopened 58 Tour Eiffel
http://www.restaurants-toureiffel.com/
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Do a search for 58 Tour Eiffel here on the forum - it has not gotten very good reviews either for food or for service, especially given the price. It%26#39;s not going to cost you any €700 - €1,000 like the Jules Verne restaurant in the tower, but it will be about half of that - and it would seem that there are much better meals to be had for that amount of money.
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The tides keep creeping from day to day and aren%26#39;t ever at the same time. check ot-montsaintmichel.com/horaires_juillet09_gb… or google Mt St Michel tides. please note that the high tides in July are during 2 weeks only and i nthe morning or evening. The best place to see the tide coming is from the platform at the top of the Mount, and you have to be there in advance of the tide. your whole schedule should be based on that. I wouldn%26#39;t advise you to spend that much money on a dinner that is likely to be not any better than in many other much cheaper places. As others have said Rouen is a very interesting place. pedestrian streets there--as in most French towns including Paris (Montorgeuil/ les Halles/ Beaubourg and other districts) are so interesting.
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